


Fight Night

by Kenzie_Kennity



Series: Max Dennis and the Island of Misfit Saints [6]
Category: Saints Row
Genre: Blood, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-07-14 09:40:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7165919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kenzie_Kennity/pseuds/Kenzie_Kennity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She didn't like to back down from challenges and it was rare that she would show when she was intimidated. It led to a lot of trouble, even when she was younger. Older kids picked on her, she always bucked back. Someone pushed her, she punched them. Her mother had always told her that she needed to relax, to not be so reactive and aggressive all the time, but she hadn't taken that to heart. As she dodged another punch, she partially wondered if she should have. If she had, maybe she wouldn't be in the fucked up situation she was currently in. Six dudes advancing on her two with weapons, three big ones and another one that seemed about as crazy as she was. The odds really weren't in her favor and for once there wasn't a Saint in sight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fight Night

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first in the series that will start to build the Max/Shaundi ship. It's not right in your face right now but the seeds are being planted with this one.

It could never be said that Max Dennis didn't have heart. Plenty of people said she didn't have _a_ heart but the kid had spirit. She was bold, always had been and probably always would be. She didn't like to back down from challenges and it was rare that she would show when she was intimidated. It led to a lot of trouble, even when she was younger. Older kids picked on her, she always bucked back. Someone pushed her, she punched them. Her mother had always told her that she needed to relax, to not be so reactive and aggressive all the time, but she hadn't taken that to heart.

 

As she dodged another punch, she partially wondered if she should have. If she had, maybe she wouldn't be in the fucked up situation she was currently in. Six dudes advancing on her two with weapons, three big ones and another one that seemed about as crazy as she was. The odds really weren't in her favor and for once there wasn't a Saint in sight.

 

They owned the entire goddamn city and none of them were anywhere to be found when she needed them. Typical. Fucking typical.

 

Still, even though she'd been holding her own well enough so far, she knew something had to give soon. Her lip was already split, her jaw throbbed and she was pretty sure she'd broken a finger or three. None of that was going to slow her down of course but she was only human. She couldn't keep fighting all six of them without a weapon.

 

When they started to fan out, she could feel a small twinge of panic forming. If they all came at once, she wouldn't last long. She was a good enough fighter, she'd taken some martial arts classes and had been fighting most of her life. Even with the experience, she was only one woman. One out numbered woman without a weapon.

 

Gotta love Fridays.

 

None of them said anything and it felt like time slowed down a little for her. She was trying to look in every direction at once but she wouldn't drop her guard, she wasn't _that_ bold. Just as she'd started to catch her breath, one swung and another one charged and she just barely managed to fall out of the way of both of them. The charging one had clipped her on the chin but she could take the blow. It wasn't that bad. With the adrenaline pumping and people in the crowd encouraging her, she couldn't feel much of the pain. Not until she got hit with that goddamn pipe again.

 

“Fuck me!” she yelled out as she cradled her forearm to her body. With her guard dropped, she left herself open to a kick to the back of the leg and went down quickly.

 

This wasn't going to end well.

 

–

 

Shaundi was a busy woman. She was one of the highest ranking Saints directly under the boss and it left her with a lot of shit to do. She didn't smoke anymore and she barely drank so it wasn't like she really had an outlet for the stress. She didn't even sleep around anymore, not really. There had been one steady fuck buddy since she got to Steelport and she'd known him for years. But he was unavailable and that left her with the only other option; watching random videos that she ran across.

 

So far nothing was good, she could barely make it past the first thirty seconds of most of them. Instead she kept clicking away and hoped for the best.

 

Until her message notification popped up anyway. One of her old friends back in Stilwater had this _amazing_ video to show her and she couldn't help but roll her eyes. That woman wouldn't know amazing if it bit her on the ass.

 

“.. _me!”_ she sat up immediately when the video loaded.

 

“Oh no.” she whispered to herself as she felt fear grip her. She clinched her jaw as the little white box with 'live' on the inside mocked her as she watched her boss raise a hand to block a kick. She managed to do it but the second blow had come from behind, there was no way the woman could have seen it coming. She swallowed, worry gripping her as she enlarged it and waited for it to buffer. All she could see was the fucking sky and nothing about the angle told her where they were.

 

“Kinzie!” she stood up quickly and leaned her head past the computer. “Kinzie get your hacker ass in here!” the other woman walked in with a deep scowl and huffed.

 

“ _What?_ ” she demanded. Shaundi waved her over and began typing as quickly as she could.

 

“Hack this feed, I need to know where Boss is.” she said as she opened her desk drawer and pulled out a gun and the car keys.

 

“Holy shit.” Kinzie said as she watched the screen with a slight hint of fascination. Shaundi paused at the door and slammed her hand on the wall. “Right! Go. I'll have her location sent to your phone before you're even out of the elevator.” she promised.

 

–

 

Max was relieved when she felt one of the men's body sag. He stopped struggling and she let him drop before she stumbled to her feet. She looked at the three that were left and wiped at her face. By sheer willpower, she hid the grimace when the pain exploded from her touch and stood as straight as she could. She could feel the blood dripping down her face from her nose and could feel her lip split open even more when she smiled.

 

She could only imagine how crazed she looked. Blood dripping, mouth red and a huge grin on her face.

 

“Anybody else?” she asked with a cheerful voice. At this point she was running on fumes alone. She'd put up a good fight, a burst of energy having hit her and allowed her to get the upper hand. Stomped one of the guys until she was knocked over before scrambling to mount him and bash his head into the ground until he stopped moving. Snapped another's neck and the other got hit in the head with a brick.

 

That had worked to her advantage but she could feel herself winding down. Pretty soon, her adrenaline wouldn't be enough to keep her standing. She flinched when she heard a loud pop and watched as the one directly in front of her froze before falling. By the time his body hit the ground and she noticed Shaundi advancing with Pierce, the other two were already catching bullets and the crowd was silenced.

 

She stared at the advancing woman for a few long seconds, swallowing and trying to keep her balance. She stumbled back a little, almost like she was trying to get away from her but Shaundi rushed to catch her.

 

“Whoa there show off.” Shaundi joked. Max chuckled and leaned on her a little, allowing the shorter woman to support her.

 

“Get the boss to the hospital, I'ma round up some Saints and show some people who they were fuckin' with.” Pierce said already having shot a few people from the crowd. They'd stood there and recorded it instead of helping. That made them automatic enemies and in their city, that was a crime punishable by death.

 

“Got it.” Shaundi said guiding her to the car. Pierce jacked a car not far from them and drove off to find some of their Saints. Shaudi immediately started in the opposite direction to the hospital.

 

–

 

Sitting there on Max's bed later that night, Shaundi frowned deeply. Her cheek was swollen and bruised and she had several cuts over her face. Her wrist had been broken as well as two fingers on her other hand but overall, she was fine. She'd been worried it was going to be worse from the amount of blood she'd been sure she thought but it wasn't thankfully. It confused her a little. Not only the lack of permanent damage but the level of worry she'd felt. While she waited for Max to come out of the bathroom she thought it over.

 

As soon as she saw the boss hurt, nothing mattered but getting to her. Sure, it was loyalty but the fear she felt...

 

She could watch Pierce get shot in the leg and worry for him but she wouldn't have felt fear, not like she had that day. It would hurt to lose someone else from their family, it would, but she wasn't scared of it happening. She'd accepted that it was an inevitability. But watching Max get hit was something new...something new entirely.

 

“I'm just realizin' we ain't got the first fuckin' doctor on payroll. Fix that for me, will ya?” Max eased onto her bed and didn't seem to mind that Shaundi had made the decision to stay for now. Shaundi looked at her as she tried to get adjusted but didn't speak. Finally, Max looked up at her and blinked. “...what?”

 

“What the fuck happened out there?” she asked angrily. Her fist clinched and honestly, she felt the sudden urge to kick Max's ass for scaring the shit out of her like that.

 

“What do you mean?” Max asked in confusion.

 

“What do I mea- why were you getting your entire face rearranged instead of callin' for help?” she snapped. She stood from the bed and Max let out a breath.

 

“Really ain't have the time. Not like I could call a time out.”

 

“This isn't the time for your lame jokes, Boss! You could have been _hurt_.” she faced the wall and tried to calm her racing heart. That was the issue right there. She could have been hurt and they wouldn't have known, Shaundi wouldn't have known. They would have just waited for her to come home until word finally got back to them. They would have sent out a search party but some of the rookies, they weren't the most organized. And honestly, it drove her crazy but she couldn't blame them.

 

“Newsflash, I kinda am hurt.” Max's tone was light but Shaundi could hear the strain. Could hear the fear in her voice. Or maybe she just imagined it. Maybe she wanted Max to be as afraid as she was.

 

“You know what I mean.”

 

“They came outta nowhere.” Max said finally. Shaundi turned to face her and narrowed her eyes. “Really, they did. I hadn't provoked them, not this time.” she promised. Shaundi found herself believing her and calming down for a second. Until she thought about the fact that this was an unprovoked attack. Sure, that meant it probably wasn't personal and it was a direct attack against them as a whole but Max didn't deserve this. She didn't deserve people watching without helping her.

 

“You gotta stay outta trouble.” Shaundi finally muttered. She looked away and wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly uncomfortable with everything. Max was silent before she finally said something.

 

“Shaundi, you can't keep worryin' about me like that. I get it, it still hurts when I think about Johnny too but I'm...I'm not as reckless as he was. Not since all that shit started, not really.” Johnny. That made sense. Of course she'd just been worried about losing another friend, Johnny was still raw after all. It had been less than a year since his death, she was still grieving and being afraid to lose Max was logical.

 

It was. Really.

 

“Yeah, I know.” Something about it started to feel hollow to her. “But sometimes I just think about him and you're one of my few friends I have left and I just-” she didn't believe a word she was saying. Not because it wasn't true, it was, but because it wasn't what she felt. But it was an acceptable response for now. It would do.

 

“I know but I'm fine, really.” she insisted. Shaundi nodded and looked at the wall.

 

“Right.” she said. She met the boss's eye and gave her a strained smile. “I'm gonna get outta here. Can I trust you to stay outta trouble for tonight?” she tried to joke. It fell flat but Max humored her with a scoff anyway.

 

“Of course not.” she tried to grin. “Now get out. Go avenge my honor or some shit.”

 

–

 

She appreciated Shaundi's concern, she did. And she understood it. Every time someone close to her got hurt, it freaked out her out and pushed her harder. It made her want to do more to keep them safe but worrying, that wasn't Shaundi's job. It was hers because she was their leader, she was their boss and she was their protector.

 

“Go on. I'm good.” she added when the other woman seemed to hesitate. Shaundi lingered for a second before nodding and leaving. Max let out a sigh and a wince, her head was going to be killing her for the rest of the night and her arm would no doubt remind her of the fight but she'd survived it. She was here and she planned to keep it that way because she knew that right now, the Saints couldn't handle another big loss. Not yet. And she wasn't ready to go. Even if she did often laugh in the face of sure death, she wasn't ready to give up on life, not yet.

 

She wasn't Johnny. She valued her life. Well she did now, anyway. Before she hadn't, not really but now she understood that it mattered. If not for herself than for the people who cared for her. She wasn't going to allow a dumb mistake leave them scrambling, she wouldn't leave that legacy behind. When she went out, she'd have a few gray hairs and it'd be in a blaze of glory. No lame asses were gonna knock her down, not in a fist fight.

 

She eased her body down and stared at the ceiling before letting her eyes close. She wouldn't be able to get revenge, not this time around. Her team was handling that. But next time, if there was a next time, she wouldn't be caught without a weapon. Never again.

 


End file.
